Licensed only since 2008 when she was 8 years old, the young winner of the 2014 ARRL Hiram Percy Maxim Award, Anna Veal, W0ANT, of Littleton, Colorado, already has an enviable list of accomplishments to her credit. The HPM Award, the League’s top youth recognition, is awarded annually to a radio amateur and ARRL member under the age of 21, whose accomplishments and contributions to the Amateur Radio and local communities “should be of the most exemplary nature.” The winner receives $1,500 and an engraved plaque. A rising sophomore at STEM School and Academy in Highlands Ranch, she is co-founder of the school’s Spartan Amateur Radio Club (AB0BX), which nominated her, and she has served as its president. She envisions a career in the biomedical sciences.

“I would like to attend Colorado State University and study biomedical engineering,” she told ARRL. “Since I’m a diabetic and have been on an insulin pump for a couple of years now, I’ve seen how biomedical engineers help peoples’ lives, and I want to be able to be a part of that.”

Anna will serve as ham radio team captain at the 2015 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Denver “OneWalk” on September 13. Later the same month, she’ll participate in her second Tour de Cure cycling event, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association, for which she serves as a youth ambassador.

In addition to these community activities and her involvement with her school’s Amateur Radio club, she’s looking forward to technology competitions with the Technology Student Association (TSA) “and continuing to learn the guitar and piano.”

Anna’s is a ham radio family. Her mother and father, Paul, N0AH, and Peggy, KD0ISN, are both educators and ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless technology alumnae.

Anna, who turns 15 this month, has begun to rack up an admirable contesting and DXpeditioning resume. “When I was younger I really enjoyed participating in the ARRL Rookie Roundup,” she said, “and this year, we worked the ARRL Sweepstakes phone competition under the school category, and at home the ARRL 10 Meter Contest as part of a multiop team.” She’s already attended two Contest University (CTU) sessions and is a regular presence at Dayton Hamvention, where she was presented with the 2011 Radio Club of America Young Achiever’s Award. She was named the 2015 Amateur Radio Newsline “Young Ham of the Year,” and will travel to Huntsville, Alabama, this month to accept the award. She also was a team member on the 2011 Youth DX Adventure at TI5N.

ARRL Colorado Section Manager Jack Ciaccia, WM0G, sang Anna’s praises in an attachment to her HPM Award application, calling her “one of the most qualified candidates I believe we may ever see for this award” and “one of our best ambassadors of young people in ham radio.”

In naming Anna as the 2014 HPM Award recipient, the ARRL Board of Directors cited her “enormous degree of involvement, service, and leadership throughout the Amateur Radio community” as well as her contest and DXpedition participation and her presentations at ham radio gatherings. The Board said she has “provided leadership and a positive example within her Amateur Radio community and among her peers.”